Teen magazines are magazines aimed at female teenage readers. They usually consist of gossip, news, fashion tips and interviews and may include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts. Magazines targeting teenage boys are not often called teen magazines.
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In the United States, teen magazines were conceived of during the 1940s. In the United Kingdom, Fleetway's Honey (1960–1986) is regarded as having established the sector. Teen magazines are produced in many countries worldwide, and enjoy wide popularity in Australia, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Seventeen Magazine started publication in the US in September 1944 and was the first magazine devoted to the needs and likes of adolescents.
While some teen magazines focus almost exclusively on music and film stars, others feature more extensive coverage of lifestyle issues and are virtually junior versions of magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Cleo.
Well-known American teen magazines include Seventeen and Teen Vogue. Popular now-defunct magazines were Sassy, CosmoGirl, Teen, and Teen People. Large-scale Canadian teen magazines include Faze[1] magazine. Since 1972, teen magazines in the United States have reached out to the African-American market with publications such as Right On! (produced by Sterling-McFadden, which also produces Tiger Beat) and Word Up!.
Like other mainstream magazines, teen magazines can be found each month at supermarkets, pharmacies, stores and newsstands. In recent years, teen magazines have also appeared on the World Wide Web. Examples of these include Faze in Canada, which is published in both web and print versions.
In the UK, changes in the way teenagers spend their money (and the fact that there were fewer of them, though they had more cash) led to many casualties in the 1990s because titles were unable to compete with mobile, digital and online media. Magazine publishers have moved down the age range with titles for "tweenagers" (aged 9 to 13) gaining popularity, such as It's Hot.
Teenage magazines tend to be categorised as lifestyle (e.g. Sugar), entertainment (often based on music), or comics.
In the UK, sales in the teen magazine sector peaked in 1998. Teenagers had many more attractions competing for their cash and their attention, such as media delivered on the web and through mobile phones. Also, the booming celebrity weeklies attracted more teens from ever-younger ages (driven by celebrity TV series). In response to this, in April 2007, National Magazines - publisher of Cosmopolitan and Cosmo Girl! - launched a digital weekly magazine for teens, Jellyfish, in a trial. This was the second attempt in the UK to establish a new online business model, the first being Monkey from Dennis, which aims to sell to men aged 18 to 34. In both cases, readers sign up to be sent the 'eMag' by email. Each issue features interactive elements and 'pages' that can be 'turned'. However, National Magazines closed Cosmo Girl! in June and the Jellyfish experiment was drawn to a close in August.